Home is where you have your cocktail

Norm's Cocktails in La Mesa is open from 6 am to 2 am 365 days a year.

David Brooks

Norm's Cocktails in La Mesa is open from 6 am to 2 am 365 days a year.

Norm's Cocktails in La Mesa is open from 6 am to 2 am 365 days a year. (David Brooks)

Perhaps just as essential a tradition as the holiday meal itself is the annual reconvention with friends that typically takes place immediately after pumpkin pie. During this ritual the group gathers 'round the bar to swap family-related horror stories from the day while letting the alcohol slowly wash away any awkwardness suffered over the course of the day (usually a result of having to share the sofa with one's distant relatives and their sweat pants). No need to feel guilty for fleeing the scene, however; there's not much to do after dinner anyway, unless you'd rather sit around to see what the dog throws up or wrestle Grandma for her schnapps stash.

Thankfully, San Diego's awash with bars that feel like your kinsfolk's living room.

Proprietor Scot Blair Donovan, who also operates Small Bar in University Heights, calls it a mix between a Cheers and a super-beer-geek bar. Hundreds of bottles fill the coolers, and anywhere from 10 to 20 new beers rotate through the 28 taps and two casks on a weekly basis, many of them first-timers to San Diego.

Albeit lowly at first sight, options do exist at this dive on the neighborhood’s northernmost ridge. So prop yourself up on the padded bar and whip out your pocketfuls of crumbled singles. Feed them to the jukebox, feed them to the pool table, feed them to the bartender in exchange for a stiff kick on the rocks. Or feed them to all of the above.

Wood paneling, brick and dark walls make it difficult to determine in which decade the scene is set, while the jukebox is just as likely to spit out Chaka Khan or Abba as the Pretenders or Fleetwood Mac. Dancing and sing-alongs ensue when the '70s hits pulse through the set.

If only every bar were lined with paisley carpet and such a massive amount of wood that you're unable to compare it to anything other than grandpa's basement. And if only every bar had stools shaped like metal saddles and seats along a wall of windows that face the sidewalk so that everyone may experience what it is to be a dirty old man with wandering eyes ... because there's a little bit of him in us all.

It was recently renovated, and the new carpet seems to rank as the most appreciated upgrade among those who know that Larry Matranga, the original owner, outfitted the place in the '60s with used rugs he bought off some Vegas casino and never bothered to replace, even when the cement started to show.

The Fox is a one-stop destination for an unpretentious evening of pool and safety darts, and its famous $2-a-bottle, "beer of the month" special makes for a cheap way to drink without resorting to the High Life or Blue Ribbon.

"Now serving you from the most south westerly bar in the United States," reads the brass plaque that's bolted to the wall. Chances are you'll find at least one truck outside whose side mirrors outsize your head.